The Sociology Book

115

Robert D. Putnam, Richard Sennett,
and Daniel Bell—self-consciously
sought to extend communitarian
ideals from the university campus
into the wider society.

Responsibilities and rights
The roots of Etzioni’s ideas lie in
the work of earlier theorists, such
as German sociologist Ferdinand
Tönnies, who had distinguished
between two types of social ties,
Gemeinschaft (community) and
Gesellschaft (association). The first
referred to personal relationships
and face-to-face interactions that
created communal society; the

second to ties created by rational

self-interest, bureaucracies, and

formal beliefs.

Tönnies held that the defining

principles of Gesellschaft in modern

society represented a backward

step in the development of human

relations compared to the high

levels of solidarity found in

traditional forms of communal

living—Gemeinschaft. Although

Etzioni developed the communitarian

thinking of Tönnies, he believed

that Tönnies overemphasized the ❯❯

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■
Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–9 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Robert N. Bellah 336

MODERN LIVING

Life in pre-industrial societies was
strongly focused on communal living
(as in the European village scene
shown here), but Etzioni says this was
often at the expense of the individual.

Strong individual rights

presume strong social

responsibilities.

Schools should provide

essential moral education

without indoctrinating

young people.

Families are the

most invaluable form

of community and need to

be remodeled on more

egalitarian lines.

Society should articulate

what is good.

Etzioni’s communitarianism is founded

on various core social values.